Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-06-18

had started by half-past nearly ali the Gospelers
were tired and glad to get back to the mission
ayers OF the mission are having wagon made es-
pecially for this purpose, which they hope will be
ready for use very soon now.
WRITING OFFICIAL HISTORY.
The War Records office and its volu.
| minOus Contents.
! WHERE GREAT GENERALS MEET AND REFRESH THEIR
RECoLLEcrIoNs-How ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS
| AND FALSE HISTORY ARE coRRKcrED-THE coll
LECTION IN CHARGE OF GEN. WRIGHT.
| The place where "war "reminiscences" are made
Is here In Washington. 1t is little square, gray
| stone building on G street. Any sort Of war
"Reminiscences that Is wanted can be had there on
| very short notice. The war articles that appear
| In such numbers In popular magazines and news
papers, written by great generals, and privates
| with wonderful recollecttOns come In part or in
| full from this place. II general Of either
| army Is called upon by the Century or
some other popular periodical to write his
recollectons Of the war; he repairs at to this
| OF magic cell which awakens tagging memory and
| corrects popular fallactes General Wallace, Gen.
erai Beanregard, colonel Allen General Corse Gen.
on their thinking caps; Or when they do not go In
person. they write for information. This great wax
ener OF recolections is the War Records ONCE The
amount OF information they have collected Is al
I most tnconceivable. great mass of the material
for the war articles that have appeared in the
| Century, is dug out OF the records there. Many
Old war veterans go there and search out the old
documents before writing the history of what they
by the cold dried and we'll preserved facts to dis
| card pet notions about how things were, and are
obliged to revise their impressions about things
with which they had thought themselves entirely
familiar.
MEETING UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS.
Frequently officers Of the two opposing armies
who have led the charge against each others
| forces have met here for the first time to know
| each other. Each looking at the battle or the
maneuver from different standpoint, they come
to look over the records to how 1t really was
There Is no chance for any quarrel about it. There
IS no room Tor exaggerat1On. The records are
right at hand to sustain the truth or to brand
| fallacy. Generally both men ind that their i'm
| friends; so they soon become Cordial There nave
been some remarkable meetings here OF men who
| Fought hard face to face, but never met before.
They sit and talk the whole thing over, cor
rect each others errors Of memory, or are both
Beauregard, Hunt, wallace, Long and the younger
Lees have met there. Sherman has drawn largely
upon these records in some of his writings. Gen.
Grant, while writing his book, was in constant
communication with Gen. Marcus j. Wright, who
does the work Of collecting the Confederate rec
Ords. A large amount OF the matter in the book
was got in this way. He also furnished informa-
| ton to the office and corrected some erroneous
statements made. JEFF. Davis has drawn upon
Gen: Wright has in his possession letter book
filled with nothing but letters from Grant and
Davis upon the same subjects.
THE CONFEDERATE WAR RECORDS
Strange to say, Je1. Davis was among the very
first to respond to the call OF the Government for
official papers OF the Confederacy. He sent all hi
papers cheerfuly as soon as he received the
guest When the work OF collecting the records
never be able to get enough OF the Confederate pa
pers 70 make the record complete; but for nine
surviving Confederate officers or the families of
officers who were killed, and he has succeeded in
collecting fully as complete record of the Con-
federate army Is had Of the Federal. All letters
or orders written by officials OF officers Of the army
during the war that relate at all to the subject OF
the war are collected and compiled and printed
without editing. When the work is all done there
will have to be another history OF the written
from these records. Many things that have been
to be absolutely false. They will show that on
GERS on both sides have been overestimated, and
that other officers have never got the credit that
was due them.
CORRECTING FALSE IMPRESSIONS.
There Is sort Of halo Of romance surrounding
all the battles that puts history in false light.
Omcers in writing reports Of battles under the
element of the time have often fallen into the
error OF exaggerattng the enemies forces. One
very popular error which has been corrected by
these records is with relation the first battle OF
Bun Kun. IL has always been believed that the
Federal forces on that occasion greatly outnum-
bered the COnfederate5s 1t has CONC into history
SO. In Ine North as well as In the South 1t has
been accepted as fact not to be disputed and the
Northern people have always felt a little shame
that their large army should have been defeated
by so much smaller force OF COnfederates. These
records bring to light the fact that there not
dlnerence Of a thousand men between the
strength OF the two armies and OF those actually
engaged in the battle, the COnfederateS had within
500 OF as many men as the Federals. There are
number OF other cases where the odds OF battle have
been accepted as very heavy, when such was not
the case; and there are the expOsit1onS OF plans
and purposes that throw an entirely new light on
history. Besides the official records that will ALL
in course OF time, be bound in many volumes, Gen.
Wright has In his possession many private letters
written to him by officers on both Sides which
will be OF great interest some time.
GALLERY OF WAR PORTRAITS
Another very interesting thing is the collection
Of photographs OF the Union and Confederate OIL
GERS. The walls OF the room in which he works is
size packing-bOxeS are filled with them He has
the picture OF almost any officer on either side
any one would be likely to want. In all he has
about 300 OF Them from generals to colonies cap
tainS, lieutenantS, and even privateS OF certain
famous corps. One OF these latter groups is But.
boris Battery, C.S artillery. Federal and COnfed-
crate officers are hung together 1ndiscriminately
In the collection, with here and there minister or
priest. All the famous commanding officers and
hundreds who won fame within narrower
limit, are there. The collection includes great
many pictures not 20 be had elsewhere and this
gallery has been drawn upon largely for ilustra-
lions, as the records have facts by war writer's
Sir Charles Russell Gets Angry.
From the st. James Gazette.
1t Is certainly somewhat startling to barrister